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Friday, July 4, 2014

Ebola outbreak deaths surge to 467 - WHO

Doctors work in a laboratory on collected samples of the Ebola virus at
the Centre for Disease Control in Entebbe, about 37 km (23 miles)
southwest of Uganda's capital Kampala.(Reuters / Edward Echwalu)

The outbreak of deadly Ebola virus is scything through West Africa
with the number of deaths rising sharply over the past week to 467
people, the World Health Organisation said in its latest report on the
uncontrollable epidemic.

In addition to the
confirmed deaths in the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone, the WHO announced that the number of confirmed or
suspected cases of the virus has risen to 759. Ebola virus
disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF)
has a mortality rate of up to 90 percent.

“As of 30 June 2014, the cumulative number of cases
attributed to EVD in the three countries stands at 759, including
467 deaths,” WHO said in their latest alert statement.

The new update shows a
38 percent increase in the number of deaths and a 27 percent rise
in the number of suspected cases since the WHO update last
Tuesday, making it West Africa’s deadliest Ebola epidemic on
record. Last week, the death toll from Ebola stood at 399 as of
June out of 635 cases.

Guinea with a population of just over 10 million is suffering the
worst from the outbreak with 413 cases and 303 deaths.
Neighboring Liberia witnessed 65 deaths among 107 registered
cases, while Sierra Leone is treating 239 patients, 99 of whom
have died.

Last Friday, the WHO issued a warning to the states bordering the
three West African nations — Male, Ivory Coast, Senegal and
Guinea Bissau — cautioning the governments that the virus could
pass into their countries through infected people.

The WHO, in its latest statement, said that three major factors
are contributing to patterns of transmission.

“These factors include transmission of EVD in rural
communities, facilitated by strong cultural practices and
traditional beliefs; transmission of EVD in densely populated
peri-urban areas of Conakry in Guinea and Monrovia in Liberia;
and cross-border transmission of EVD along the border areas of
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where commercial and social
activities continue among the border areas of these countries.
“

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola
RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in
Gueckedou.(Reuters / Misha Hussain)

On Wednesday, health ministers from eleven countries will meet in
Accra, Ghana, to plan a regional response to the outbreak.

Ahead of the meeting, the WHO stressed that “Containment of
this outbreak requires a strong response in the countries and
especially along their shared border areas.”

The first Ebola virus outbreak registered in the region occurred
in Guinea in February 2014. By 23 April, the total number of
suspected and confirmed cases in the Ebola haemorrhagic fever
(EHF) outbreak had increased to 242, including 142 deaths at a
case fatality rate of 58.7 percent. The virus is believed to have
spread to neighboring states.

The governments of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia are trying
to deal with the epidemic with prepared EHF response plans and
conducting assessments through their national emergency
committees.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in March
disbursed $250,000 to deal with the outbreak. The European
Commission (EC) gave €500,000 to help contain the spread of the
virus in Guinea and its neighboring countries.

Sierra Leone activated an Active Surveillance Protocol making all
visitors from Guinea or Liberia subject to a health screening
process upon arrival. Senegal and Mauritania in late March closed
their borders in an effort to contain the disease from spreading.
In April, Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas for the Muslim
pilgrimage to Mecca to those from Guinea and Liberia.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), believed to be the only aid
organization treating people affected by the Ebola virus, last
week warned the outbreak is out of control.

“The epidemic is out of control,” said Dr. Bart
Janssens, MSF director of operations. “With the appearance of
new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real
risk of it spreading to other areas.”

A worker transports durt in a wheelbarrowat a center for victims of the Ebola virus in Guekedou.(AFP Photo / Seyllou )

“We have reached our
limits,” Janssens claims. “Despite the human resources
and equipment deployed by MSF in the three affected countries, we
are no longer able to send teams to the new outbreak
sites.”

MSF has urged the WHO to deploy the resources necessary to fight
an epidemic of this scale.

“In particular, qualified medical staff need to be made
available, training in how to treat Ebola needs to be organised
and, contact tracing and awareness-raising activities among the
population need to be stepped up. Ebola is no longer a public
health issue limited to Guinea: it is affecting the whole of West
Africa,” says Janssen.

On Tuesday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf issued a
statement saying that Ebola has become a national public health
emergency.

“It is illegal under our public health law to expose the
people to health hazard such as Ebola,” Sirleaf said, Reuters
reports. “Let this warning go out, anyone found or reported to be
holding suspected Ebola cases in homes or prayer houses will be
prosecuted under the laws of Liberia,” she said.

According to the WHO
fact-sheet, EVD outbreaks spring up in remote villages in Central
and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. Between 1976, when
the virus was first identified, and 2014, fewer than 1,000 people
a year have been infected.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads
in the human population through human-to-human transmission, with
fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family considered to be the
natural hosts of the Ebola virus. No vaccine is available for use
in people or animals, with “several vaccines are being
tested, but none are available for clinical use.”

“Ebola is introduced
into the human population through close contact with the blood,
secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In
Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of
infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest
antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the
rainforest,” the WHO says.

The virus manifests itself with a sudden onset fever with chills,
sore throat, severe headache, weakness, joint pain, muscle pain,
and chest pain. The average time between contracting the
infection and the onset of symptoms is 13 days, but can be as
long as 25 days.

Healthesound.info

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